Date First Reported: July 2015

Primary Name Associated: Li Ka-Shing

Description of Potential Fraud:

Two Ontario firms notified us that they received an email from the purported Li Ka-Shing of Qingzhou Yongsheng Dredging Machinery Co looking to retain them with regards to making a large commercial purchase.

This is a bad cheque scam that presents as legal matter requiring the assistance of a lawyer. In this scam lawyers will be duped into wiring real funds from their trust accounts after depositing a fake cheque received as payment from the purchaser (who is part of the fraud).

See our Confirmed Fraud Page for more of an explanation of how these frauds work and to see other names associated with it. Our Fraud Fact Sheet lists the red flags of a bogus legal matter that is really a fraud.

If you have been targeted by any of these frauds, please forward any of the emails and supporting documents that you have received to [email protected]

If you suspect you are acting on a matter that might be a fraud, call LAWPRO at 1-800-410-1013 (416-598-5899). We will talk you through the common fraud scenarios we are seeing and help you spot red flags that may indicate you are being duped. This will help you ask appropriate questions of your client to determine if the matter is legitimate or not. If the matter you are acting on turns out to be a fraud and there is a potential claim, we will work with you to prevent the fraud and minimize potential claims costs.

If you have been successfully duped, please immediately notify LAWPRO as there may be a claim against you.

For more immediate updates on fraud and claims prevention, subscribe to the email or RSS feed updates from LAWPRO’s AvoidAClaim blog.

Fraud Fact SheetMore fraud prevention information and resources are available on the practicePRO Fraud page, including the Fraud Fact Sheet, a handy reference for lawyers and law firm staff that describes the common frauds and the red flags that can help identify them.

I received a request for legal assistance through a lawyer referral website to which I subscribe that was almost identical to the one shown on your website, right down to the wording. This one was purportedly from “China Dredging Group Co., Ltd.,” a legitimate business located in Fuzhou, China, for the sale of dredging equipment to a major dredging company located in the Chicago area. The purported name of the person representing China Dredging was “Tai Song,” and while his mailing address was in Fuzhou, it wasn’t the address of the actual company. “Mr. Song” also gave me the name and address of his “North American Representative,” a Company called 10th Power Technologies, with a Toronto mailing address, and a contact person named “Donna Jensen.”

Although I went as far as clearing conflicts and drafting an engagement letter, once I got his next email, in which he mentioned wiring money to my firm’s trust account so that I could wire it to him once I had received the seller’s payment, I became suspicious, and starting searching on Google to find out if the company and/or the transaction were legitimate. His used an email address of “[email protected], which struck me as a bit suspicious right from the first, since a company like China Dredging would normally have email addresses that included the company’s name. There were other aspects of his communication that were a bit off as well. When I told him that I had children who I had adopted from China, he told him that I was “blessed” and to “give them a kiss” for him, something a legitimate Chinese businessman would never say to a Westerner.

As soon as I discovered it was a scam, I sent him an email declining the engagement. I haven’t heard from him since.

These guys are seriously sleazy. I hope someone is able to put a stop to them, although I don’t know how that will happen.

We are in search of a reputable organization/representative’s to partner with our firm to assist in monitoring a project/purchase of a farmland in your region and your services will be fully paid upfront in the course of the assignment.

We sincerely look forward to working with you as you respond to this email swiftly.

The company exists but the email address is from Outlook.com and the content of the email made me suspicious. A quick search brought me here to confirm so I wanted to post as well to help other people researching these scam emails. Thanks!